Thursday, April 05, 2007

The "New Americans?"

Trial is under way in Iraqi spy case Des Plaines man is called secret agent

Federal prosecutors began laying out their case Tuesday against a Des Plaines man accused of being an officer for the Iraqi Intelligence Service under Saddam Hussein.

Sami Khoshaba Latchin worked for years as a gate agent at O'Hare International Airport, but he was really a "sleeper spy" recruiting operatives to gather information on groups opposing Hussein's regime from inside the United States, prosecutors said.

Secret documents that fell into American hands after the 2003 invasion of Iraq point to Latchin as an Iraqi operative, first in Greece and then in the Chicago area, Assistant U.S. Atty. James Conway told jurors.

"There's a spy in this room," he said.

Before his arrest in 2004, Latchin had been planted in the U.S. as a long-term operative, directing collaborators and awaiting further instructions from Baghdad, Conway said.

He is charged with lying on documents to obtain American citizenship, lying to the FBI, and being an unregistered foreign agent in this country.

He might have remained in his position if the paperwork outing him had not surfaced overseas, Conway said.

"These files were never to see the light of day," he said. Three other Iraqi operatives would testify against Latchin, Conway said.

Six years after 9-11 we find this out? How many more?

H/T Debbie Schussel who reports that citizenship applicants are not being checked for ties to terrorism.